Dear Representative Reed; Leah’s Valentine

Feb 14, 2017

Dear Representative Reed,

Greetings on this Valentine’s Day, a day when so many around the world celebrate love. Congressman, today I see a world where love shines through small cracks in a heavy blanket of hate and fear. Our native brothers and sisters have gathered at Standing Rock in the many thousands, representing over three hundred first nations. Many thousands more non-indigenous neighbors, including several thousand veterans of the United States Military have joined them. The message coming from Standing Rock rings loud and clear: Water is Life. To deny this fact denies life itself. Standing Rock speaks for all of us. And yet, we see water protectors repeatedly brutalized, terrorized, jailed.

Congressman, I had the privilege of joining the many thousands at Standing Rock. I experienced there the most honest representation of loving one another- a culture of sharing, hospitality, and truth. This movement opens a door for love where love means truth, where love means justice, where love means common care. This love unites mothers at Standing Rock with mothers of black sons and daughters murdered by police here in the US, with immigrant mothers deported and separated from their US-born children, with refugee mothers fleeing from the terrors of US war-making abroad. Today I beseech you as my representative in Congress, on behalf of all mothers, fathers, and children, to use your voice for love, for truth and for justice. Call today for the immediate halt of violence against water protectors at Standing Rock and the halt of construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.